Christmas movies are great. Scary movies are great. You'd think combining the two would make way for an awesome cross-over genre (hey, it worked for Christmas and action movies). Unfortunately, there's never really been a good Christmas horror film (I mean, I'm pretty partial to Silent Night, Deadly Night myself, but others don't seem to share the same sentiment). But, after his sneaky little hit a few years back, Michael Dougherty has followed up Trick r' Treat with Krampus, a Christmas horror comedy that was a fun little PG-13 film, that could've been a great R rated film.
It's two days before Christmas and already the family is starting to lose it. Max (Chef's Emjay Anthony) is starting to wonder if Christmas has lost all its magic. He's constantly trying to get back to the good ole' days when everyone gave a shit about everyone and loved one another. Instead, he and his parents (Adam Scott and Toni Collette) are forced to spend the holidays with their hillbilly unruly family (among them David Koechner). They're crass, they're crude, they're insensitive, and they're hated by everyone else. The only person Max seems to care about is his Hungarian grandmother Omi who has convinced Max, even though he probably doesn't believe in Jesus Santa anymore, to write him a letter. His cousins get ahold of it and embarrass Max out loud which leads him to tear the letter up and toss it out the window. Little did he know that this would trigger the shadow of St. Nicholas-- Krampus and his minions to come and try to kill the shit out of his entire family. Slowly, the town is covered by a huge blizzard. Ominous snowmen start appearing on the front lawn. Noises in the attic, shadows on the wall. Krampus teases you before he strikes you down.
The film is fun. Plain and simple. It's not scary at all. And it's not overtly funny, either. It's kind of stuck in that middle ground where the jokes are dumb enough for the movie to be considered a comedy, but the film isn't scary enough to be a horror. It seems to me that the film was unwilling to commit to either side and I can only guess that's because it was obligated to retain a PG-13 rating. The crude family is only crude enough for PG-13 faire. The horror violence mostly occurs offscreen. And while this certainly isn't a family movie, it's as if the filmmakers were afraid to go balls out, which would've made for a great film. What we have now is good... not great. It takes a little bit too long for the build up, to the point that you start to wonder if the fun is ever going to arrive. However, when the attacks and creepiness begins... it's a lot of fun. The family is taken down piece by piece by Krampus's minions which include a creepy doll/bird (something Sid from Toy Story might've put together), a grotesque teddy bear, a giant jack in the box that eats people, creepy little demonic Shakespearean elves, a robot toy that loves to stab people, and annoying little murderous gingerbread men.
All of the creatures in the film are done by practical means and it makes them quite frightening to look at, but hilarious to watch. The only CGI in the entire film were the gingerbread men (who, if you ask me, could've been left out because they were DUMB... but only in the film very briefly). The fact that he used robotics or men in costume made the film that much better to watch. Now if he'd been able to splatter some bitches on the walls... that would've amped the movie up to a 10. Unfortunately, while there is some good horror (not scares), all of the violence mostly happens offscreen which is kind of a downer.
The best part of the movie, though, is when you finally get to see Krampus. It's not CGI and it's awesome as hell. Most of the time when the monster is hidden for most of the film, the reveal is kind of a let down (note to horror filmmakers... when you can't make the reveal awesome, don't reveal at all) however, this time it paid off. He's a terrifying hybrid of man and Santa beast. And while I was hoping that the film would lean a little bit more towards the horror side of the genre instead of the comedy (even though it doesn't actually nail either), it was all made right by the end of the film just by witnessing the Krampus they went with.
Crossing other genres and horror take finesse. Drag Me To Hell is the best example I have because not only is it equal parts hilarious and terrifying, it also did it with a PG-13 rating. Sam Raimi is a genius and it's hard to duplicate that filmmaking, genre-crossing talent. Krampus gets close. But, where Drag Me To Hell didn't let the PG-13 rating get it down and was able to juggle both moments of absolute terror as well as laugh out loud hilarity... Krampus just didn't seem to be able to commit to either side and it was diluted with its rating. Had it been able to go balls out on both sides instead of hindering itself in fear of censorship... it would've taken a good and highly entertaining movie, and elevated it to great.
B-
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